1. Field of Invention
The invention is related to the software radio technology. More particularly, the invention is related to reconfiguring software radio technology based on a higher layer application, traffic, channel condition, and/or receiver characteristics.
2. Description of Related Art
Software Defined Radio (SDR) Technology is a state of the art term for achieving for interface re-configurability. SDR achieves limited programmability through parameterized control of the physical layer, and is limited to base station implementations where size, weight, power and cost are not very critical. The term software defined radios is used to describe radios that provide software control of a variety of modulation techniques, wide-band or narrow-band operation, communications security functions (such as hopping), and waveform requirements of current and evolving standards over a broad frequency range.
As future wireless networks are expected to constantly evolve, and newer multi-media service are carried increasingly on unlicensed spectral bands, these changes necessitate support for multiple air-interface standards. The support for multiple air-interface standards requires reconfigurability of the physical layer of the consumer terminal over time, as new standards emerge, and over space, as in roaming where the mobile terminal moves into an area with a different access network.
In addition, reconfigurability will be needed based on the type of multi-media content being delivered, and the types and capabilities of devices exchanging such content. In particular, the need for programmable architectures that look beyond Digital Signal Processors and Microprocessors is needed. However, to date, no known software radio architecture exists that has been applied to wireless networks carrying multimedia traffic.